More Indian than you think

More Indian than you think

Recently I saw this very beautiful TVC of the very well known and iconic Airline, Lufthansa. I really liked how it has managed to capture the current pre-eminent position of India in the world affairs, while at the same time, it celebrates the gentle Indian culture and the boisterousness of Bollywood, albeit through a typical Bollywood dance, #MoreIndianThanYouThink. I am sure you must certainly have watched it, but here it is again…

But what this TVC did for me, was to take me down memory lane. Those were the College days when there used to be lots of debates on some serious and lots of trivial topics. Once, in the College canteen, a debate was raging on how India is so backward, it had always been backward, and how the western countries were so far ahead that India will never catch up. I was hearing all this but could not agree with what was being said. I tried to butt in with my contrary views but that day I was totally overpowered by the majority who did not agree. I knew that India had a golden past but centuries of being ruled over by foreign rulers had made her so poor. I was also sure that once Indians started showing respect for their own culture and their past and current achievements, the day would not be far when the whole world would respect India and Indians, just like how it is shown here…

Lufthansa link

That day I could not sleep and decided to do some research into India’s glorious past. My plan was to give a talk on India during the Annual Day Celebrations of our college. The next few months, whenever time allowed, I would be at the city library, pouring over all things Indian. By the time, the Annual Day arrived I was well prepared. 

Finally the D-day arrived. My turn came, and my talk covered the following topics –

1) The coincidences between Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and the Dashawatar – Just like Darwin’s Theory progresses from the aquatic life, like the fish, followed by amphibians, to the lower mammals, progressing to the primates and then modern Homo sapiens. The Dashawatar, which are the various incarnations of the God Vishnu, also progress from the Fish, followed by the turtle, to the Boar, then the half man-half lion, the Narasimha, who was followed by Vamana, a dwarf and then the various pious and venerable humans. Is it just a coincidence?

2) In-depth knowledge of the cosmos and astronomy and advanced mathematics of the ancient Indians – For the ancient Indians it was very important to know and predict, the timing of various events like the start of the monsoon, the end of the monsoon, the timing for starting the agricultural cycle and the best times for reciting Vedas and other religious activities. A great deal of study of the night sky over many years was put in by them, which resulted in lot of knowledge about the cosmos and repeatability of movement of the heavenly bodies over the course of the year. That the planets revolve round the sun (Heliocentric theory) and earth being round was known. Also known was that the earth rotates around its own axis. Aryabhatta (about 500 CE) correctly deduced that the motion of the planets around the Sun is elliptical and not circular. The year had 360 days. The distance from the earth to the Sun and the moon were well within the acceptable limits of modern times. The circumference of the earth was also calculated. Aryabhatta also worked on the approximation of the pi and the value is again same as in modern times. What the world knows as Arabic numerals are actually Brahmi numerals. Trigonometry was extensively used and so was Algebra and the decimal system and area of a triangle was known before the Greeks and Pythagoras. I could go on and on but time has its limits and I must conclude here.

3) Charaka Samhita – it is a pre second century text and it contains sections on importance of hygiene, medical education, diet, and the teamwork necessary between the physician, nurse and the patient to help in the recovery of health. It also enumerates the attributes of a good medical practitioner. 

4) Long before the current obsession with plastic surgery, it was Sushruta who pioneered rhinoplasty in ancient India. The entire procedure of doing a rhinoplasty was described by Sushruta in his medical treatise.

5) Today John Dalton is known as the father of modern atomic theory but in ancient India, it was Kanada. In the Vaisheshika Sutra, in addition to many other empirical observations, he also mentions falling of objects to the ground, due to some attraction force, today known as gravity.

6) The atomic bomb – when the first atomic explosion was conducted by the Americans, Oppenheimer who was in charge of the project, uttered these famous words from the Bhagwad Gita, “Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of the worlds!”. Did ancient Indians have similar weapons? The matter is subject to debate.

7) The most hygienic cities in the ancient world were in ancient India – Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Lothal, Rakhigarhi and many others had well laid out streets, uniform bricks used in construction and the most hygienic sanitation in the form of covered drains.

8) The non-rusting Iron pillar – The iron pillar in Delhi has withstood the test of time, and is standing un-rusted inspite of being exposed to extreme elements over a period of many centuries. This speaks volumes about india’s achievement in metallurgy in ancient times.

9) “We owe a lot to the ancient Indians, teaching us how to count. Without which most modern, scientific discoveries, would have been impossible”. Do you know who said this? It was that celebrated great scientist, Albert Einstein.

10) The biggest universities which acted like magnets for students from across the ancient world were all located in India.

So folks, that was in the past when I wanted my co-students to feel proud of the heritage of India. Today there are many more success stories. In the field of sports, Indians are making a mark in sports like badminton, gymnastics, wrestling in addition to the ever green cricket. The biggest international conglomerates like Google, Microsoft, PepsiCo, are headed by Indians. Indian space program has reached the Moon and Mars. Recently the ISRO program made a world record launch of 104 satellites simultaneously on a PSLV rocket. 

To close, Be Proud to be an Indian and enjoy the pre-eminent position of your country today, on the world stage.

Yatindra Tawde